Note: the critique in this text is regarding the latest audiovisual productions of Saint Seiya made by Toei.
After the live action film, whose box office results were a disaster, I think we need to rethink how to make the Saint Seiya franchise more attractive. As a passionate fan of Saint Seiya, I’ve been getting tired of the old fighting anime formula, typical of shounen. There are two recent titles that caught my attention. These are two animes that have become very dear to me and that can serve as a basis for us to reflect on what I want from Saint Seiya. These animes are: Sousou no Frieren (葬送のフリーレン) and Ousama Ranking (王様ランキング). Today I will only talk about the first.
Sousou no Frieren is the anime that caught my attention the most recently. I never read the manga, and when I saw the anime, I thought it was a work in the “seinen” category. I was surprised when I saw it was classified as “shounen”. Although the arcs involving actual fighting are typical of the “shounen” category, what draws attention to this anime is the quality of the narrative and the maturity of the story. Sousou no Frieren has some characteristics that I want to see in Saint Seiya. Please note that this list is not in order of importance. All are equally important and interdependent characteristics.
1) Mature reflection on life, death and the pain of loss
Sousou no Frieren is a story that doesn’t hide what its purpose is from the beginning. It is a journey of discovery and self-discovery for Frieren, the protagonist. Frieren, having the ability to live for thousands of years, has a different notion of the passage of time, which leads her to reflect on human time. We reflect on how we should enjoy life with those we love, on accepting the death of these people, on the memories we take with them. This is a reflection that we all make – especially us adults. I am a Saint Seiya fan who is over forty years old. My parents are very old and need my help with many things. I experience the difficulties of old age up close and have very close contact with the issue of death, which will inevitably come to people I love who are at the end of their lives. I want reflections on the finiteness of life in the works I see, and Sousou no Frieren deals with this with great quality.
This type of reflection is very relevant, not only for the Japanese people, who have a significant elderly population, but also for us, fans, who are at a stage of life where many are living with elderly parents. It’s nice to see young people enthusiastic about the adventures they will experience, but the narratives that appeal to me the most are those where these characters are more sensitive to the weight of death and mourning. And to engage the audience with this theme, it’s very important to pay attention to how this subject is addressed: a narrative is needed that allows the viewer time to contemplate the moment, without haste, with very well-written dialogues.
One of the episodes of Sousou no Frieren that stuck with me was the 4th. The end of it presents an apparently simple, but very well constructed dialogue. Eisen apologizes to Fern, as the journey he proposes to Frieren will take 10 years of his life. Fern, a teenager who doesn’t want to spend too much time in one place on her journey with Frieren, thinks much more about her goal than about the path. Ten years for her, who is human, is a long time. We have the idea here that these 10 years are lost years, thrown away. Frieren, listening to the conversation between Eisen and Fern, says: “You’re right. It will be an adventure of just 10 years.” Here, we can think of two meanings for Frieren’s speech. The first sense is that Frieren, having lived hundreds of years, feels that 10 years is a very short time. She comments the same at the end of her adventure with Himmel. However, the second meaning is what makes this dialogue more beautiful and meaningful to the audience. Frieren has already experienced Himmel’s death and already understands that the ten years of adventure she lived with her friends are extremely important. This comment that the adventure “only” takes ten years is not the same as before. Here, it’s as if she said: “it will only be 10 years, so let’s make the most of this time”. In other words, for her, it won’t be 10 wasted years, but 10 very meaningful years that she and the other characters will miss. Note that it is not necessary for Frieren to say that this time should be used. It’s up to the public to understand this. Often, the beauty lies in what is left unsaid but implied. It’s necessary to also rely on the intelligence and maturity of the audience. In this way, we have a simple dialogue, yet with a very strong meaning. This is the result of quality writing that takes into account the maturity of its audience.
Reflections on life and death are not uncommon in productions for children, so much so that we have many animations aimed at children on these themes. All the productions that I saw as a child and that remained in my emotional memory had a strong relationship with these themes. To this day, I remember The Land Before Time, a 1988 animation, which tells the story of Littefoot, a dinosaur who becomes an orphan and needs to go on a journey shortly after losing his mother. Many of my generation also remember the death of Mufasa, from Disney’s Lion King, an event that marks Simba’s life. However, these themes are also dear to adults, that is, they are universal themes. This is the way to expand the target audience of a product initially aimed at Japanese boys. Universal themes are not limited to age, gender or nationality.
However, it is essential to comment that it is not enough to kill a character to make the narrative memorable: it is necessary to construct the death of that character in a significant way within the narrative. Littlefoot is still in the process of mourning his mother’s death, and this pain is evident in the leaf he carries as a souvenir of his mother. The moment of character death is not quick. It’s slow, because the audience is also grieving, and grieving people need time. Today, in times of rapid consumption, when people watch videos at accelerated speed or view fast-paced content, it is important to remember that sadness and grief do not happen in a few minutes and cannot be accelerated. Therefore, the construction of these scenes requires time and sensitivity. Furthermore, remarkable moments like this generate reflection in the characters. Himmel’s death is important to Frieren not only because she loves him, but because his death sparked reflection in her. Frieren began to see life differently after Himmel’s death. The characters need to develop from these important moments, and producers need to keep in mind that the objective of touching on sensitive subjects is to affect the feelings of those watching the anime. Consequently, it is necessary to consider that this audience is adults and that they have the capacity and maturity to see and evaluate the structure of these narratives. These topics need to be treated with the necessary depth to please an adult.
2) Aesthetic construction of the narrative
Significant moments are constructed in the narrative not only with strong themes, but also by the way they are structured. And here I’m talking about narrative art. We know that anime are products, and products need to generate money. However, we cannot forget the artistic dimension of narrative construction. Art is powerful and impacts much more than a direct message. Art needs to be interpreted, and the audience needs to be intelligent enough to interpret it. I believe this is what the Saint Seiya audience needs.
We can think, for example, about the structuring of time in Sousou no Frieren. Frieren’s entire story of self-discovery happens only after Himmel’s death. It is common in the Christian world to divide time according to the Anno Domini system (BC and AD). Likewise, the entire narrative of Sousou no Frieren takes place after Himmel’s death. Time is a central element of Sousou no Frieren and is part of the anime’s message. Therefore, it makes sense that time begins to be counted from the death of Himmel, that is, from the moment in which Frieren awakens to the appreciation of the time of humans in his life. It is very interesting how Frieren’s awareness is reflected by the increasingly smaller time jumps. The choice to structure the time of the narrative is generated by the author’s intention and is an artistic choice, which highlights the importance of events and time in Sousou no Frieren.
The very passage of time in Frieren’s anime is influenced by the author’s intention. What interests us about Frieren’s journey is not his goal of going to Ende, but the journey itself. Common events, typical of anime in the “slice of life” category, are part of the objective of the narrative, including the celebration of birthdays, and are in no way related to the struggles that the group faces along the way. What interests us is the reflection that these events generate in the public, which makes the story of these characters more meaningful. They are important, so they should be told without rushing. The audience needs to have time to appreciate these small moments as well. A positive point of this type of narrative in anime is also the economy of animation compared to the need for dynamism in fight scenes. It is important to note here that I am not referring to events to “kill time”, but rather to events relevant to the construction of the story and characters, which can be very simple, but moving and meaningful.
Another example of how art in the narrative is important in the construction of meanings in the story is in the moving episode in which Frieren talks to Voll, an elderly dwarf who shows signs of senility. Although he no longer remembers his wife, he remains the protector of her village. The message this character brings is powerful: it is possible to lose important memories. No matter how much we think “this person is important and I will never forget them”, time can erase the memories involving this person, even more when it comes to elderly people affected by diseases such as dementia. At this moment in the narrative, we see a narrative resource known as a double or mirror. It was used in a very cliché way in the Saint Seiya live-action film, in which the character Seiya meets his double, but a child. Here, in Sousou no Frieren, the mirror is very well used in a scene in which Frieren’s identity is symbolically doubled and reflected in Voll’s figure. Frieren confronts Voll, stating that it is obvious that she remembers Himmel, while Voll, being elderly, no longer remembers his wife. The meaning of this confrontation is well portrayed visually, as in the following image:
In this image, we see that Frieren is in a higher place than Voll. As we age, we get closer to death. We are declining. This notion is evident in this image. Voll is at the bottom because he is closer to death than Frieren, but one day Frieren will also be in the same position as him. In this way, the story suggests to us that even Frieren may end up forgetting Himmel’s characteristics one day, no matter how important he is to her. I have people in my family in this situation, and this is an extremely painful reality. This scene from the anime deeply moved me. Therefore, here we have an example of a strong message that is constructed in an artistic way, through the use of the mirror and the slope that represents the end of life.
The double feature is frequently used in anime and manga. However, when this double occurs between a character and an image of himself (like adult Seiya and young Seiya in the live-action film) or between a character and someone important to him (like Sagittarius Sisyphus and Sasha, in the Lost Canvas), it becomes obvious and boring, as it has been used excessively in many other productions.
I would like Saint Seiya’s production to take greater artistic care with the way the narrative is structured. When I think of Saint Seiya, in addition to the characters’ dramatic moments, some significant moments also come to mind.
A good example of artistic construction in Saint Seiya that I like to mention is in The Lost Canvas manga. One of the most important scenes in this manga is the one that presents all the golden saints inside the Pope’s hall, with the exception of Shion, who arrives late to the meeting. At the back of the hall, sitting on a throne, is Pope Sage. This is an important frame, as it is the one that officially introduces the golden knights to the reader. Later, in the Gaiden series, we see a similar picture in Shion’s story, a vision with the gold saints in the Pope’s hall. However, in this image, the throne is empty. The reader understands that the gold saints are respectfully giving way to Shion to occupy the position of Pope. Shion did not hold the position of Pope on merit. He only survived together with Dohko, that is, he was the only one left to be the Pope. He never received approval from his fellow gold saints to hold that position and is not even sure if he would be approved. The fact that Shion sees his colleagues giving way to him to be the Pope is a sign of approval and great honor, causing a cathartic effect on the reader. Note that the only difference between the first and second pictures is the absence of the Grand Master in the second. A small change to the image brought a completely different meaning to an image already known to the reader. This is an aesthetic transformation. In poetry and literature, we are surprised when a word or element gains a new meaning, and this meaning makes our reading richer. This is art. Likewise, the author of Lost Canvas produced art in these two pictures by giving new meaning to an illustration. When I saw this illustration for the first time, I was very emotional and cried. This was only possible because the construction of this image was not only emotional, but also artistic. I want for Saint Seiya, in its anime adaptation, to embody artistry at this level.
Of course, it is necessary to take into account that artistic intention is not always consciously perceived by the audience. However, the audience is often able to capture beauty, even if they cannot describe it rationally. And then, when this audience is able to understand how the art is constructed in a given scene, they will feel enormous pleasure and give more value to the work.
3) Time for contemplation
As I’ve mentioned in this text, the way the narrative is told cannot be rushed. Of course, Saint Seiya stories involve fights, and action scenes are naturally fast-paced. However, moments where characters are developed through dialogue and moments outside of the battlefield cannot be hurried. I believe the fear of the audience getting bored due to lack of fights is a concern for the producers. But for me, the fight is only interesting when there’s an intriguing subplot behind the conflict.
One of the characteristics of Saint Seiya is the fights where characters resolve unresolved issues, such as when Shun faces Afrodite to avenge his master’s death and to prove his worth as a man. Amidst the fight, the entire flashback of Shun’s training on the island of Andromeda was shown, with the intention of showing the audience how important the master was to Shun. The fights in Saint Seiya lasted for two episodes or more because of such subplots, which gave meaning to the fight, making it thrilling. In summary: action excites, and context moves. Getting excited about a fight is not as memorable as being moved by it. I want Saint Seiya to have more emotionally charged fights.
For this emotion to be built into the narrative, it’s important not to rush the story. A well-told story about three Gold Saints is preferable to a rushed story with all 12, as was the case in Soul of Gold. Although the intention of this anime was to release the action figures with the divine cloths, greater care with the animation and script would have been welcomed by the fans, along with a story told without haste. At least for me, I didn’t develop any bond with the story and didn’t feel like buying the action figures because of the lack of this emotional connection.
In today’s world, we are very rushed. Today’s youth are accustomed to watching videos at double speed. However, I don’t know anyone from the younger generation who takes half the time to recover from sadness or grief compared to the previous generation. The time it takes us to process strong emotions is no different. Therefore, emotional scenes in Saint Seiya should not be portrayed hastily, nor should the development of the characters’ feelings. Furthermore, Sousou no Frieren is proof that the audience doesn’t want rushed stories but slow and contemplative ones. I sorely miss that in Saint Seiya.
Conclusion
Of course, there are more things I would like to see in Saint Seiya, but I’ve highlighted these three elements that are fundamental to the quality of the script of a remarkable anime. It’s understandable to develop the anime around the products to be sold. However, the Saint Seiya franchise has weakened over the years mainly because its recent productions lack the elements listed here. And Sousou no Frieren is proof that these elements are important for the success of the product in question. It’s impossible to have a strong Saint Seiya product if it cannot compete with strong titles like Sousou no Frieren and other animes that can efficiently work with the story and feelings of the characters to move the reader and the fan. It’s important to remember that these fans, like me, are adults. We have a greater capacity to analyze narrative structures, and therefore, we need narratives with better artistic quality, without forgetting the emotion.
Although it’s obvious, I assert: the positive opinion of fans about the anime’s story, together with its technical qualities, is fundamental to the success of a franchise. Sousou no Frieren, in a short time, reached #1 on AnimeList, a popular anime website. The good opinion of some influencers prompts other influencers to praise the product. Word-of-mouth recommendation among fans and the general public makes people curious about this product – including North Americans! It’s impossible for the Saint Seiya franchise to regain success without undergoing this process of good public opinion, including that of the fans.
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